Knowledge, attitude and perception about menopause among women in Makiungu village, Singida Rural, Tanzania

Abstract

Background: Menopause is a physiological event occurring with ovarian failure and marks the end of a woman's reproductive life. The average age at menopause is about 50 years. Symptoms associated with menopause include irregular menstruation, dry skin, hot flushes and vaginal dryness. Some women experience few whereas numerous emotional and physical symptoms plague others. Often menopause is symptomatic for women. Perception, attitudes and knowledge regarding menopause and its transitional period, the climacteric, may differ from one female population to another. These differences have been related to female age, parity and hormonal status as well as to social, economical, cultural, educational and geographical factors. Objectives: The main objective was to investigate knowledge, attitude and perception on menopause and menopausal symptoms among women in Makiungu Village, Singida Rural District Material and methods: House to house visits were done after systematic random sampling done using the list of house holds from the village office list of households. Women aged 45-55 years were recruited in the study. Questionnaire was administered to all the study subjects assessing knowledge, Attitude and perception towards menopause. Results: A total of 150 women were included in the study, 72% were postmenopausal and 28% were premenopausal. Mean age was 50.1 and SD 3.8. Parity was 7.13 and SD 3.2. 88% of the study populations were peasants. Of the participants 44.7% had no formal education and the mean age at menopause was 47.8 and SD 2.8. The majority of women (79%) were of the option that seeking medical attention at the time of menopause was not important. Most common sources of information and knowledge on menopause were friends (47%) and relatives (29%). Fifty eight percent (58%) did not think that menopause is coupled with unbearable symptoms. Fifty percent (50%) of post menopausal women did not know at what age women reach menopause. Very few of them knew at least 3 postmenopausal symptoms. The most prevalent symptoms were hot flushes (56.7%), palpitation (40%) and vaginal dryness (36%) - --- - however majority of the consultation to the physicians were because of hot flushes (24%) and palpitations (18%). Having secondary education or above was associated with poor information about menopause (60%) than no formal education (90%) and primary education (90%) p value is 0.015 each. Conclusion: Despite the fact that women perceived menopause as a positive event, their related knowledge was low. There is a great diversity in symptom frequencies across countries, and the association of symptoms with menopausal status in Singida rural is weak.